Page:Philosophical Review Volume 2.djvu/33

1.] We comprehend only that side of God which is turned towards us, his essence in so far as it manifests itself as the active principle of the universe. The inner nature of God, his being-for-himself, the inner reflection of his causality, we can as little know as we can perceive the side of the moon turned away from us. All hypotheses concerning the existence of God in and for himself (to which class belong also those regarding divine consciousness, unconsciousness, and superconsciousness) are vain and worthless. For, in the first place, they can never be verified; and, secondly, we are interested only in knowing what God is for us as active in the world, not what he may be in himself and for himself.

One's religious view of the world, of nature, and of humanity, is closely related to one's belief in God. These religious conceptions are generally embodied in legends concerning the origin of the universe, or of the earth and the human race, as well as concerning miraculous divine revelations which have occurred in the course of history. When such legends, which have arisen in prehistoric times, become articles of faith, they afford the chief ground of conflict between faith and science. In this connection the Philosophy of Religion has the thankworthy task (though one which is seldom appreciated) of mediating between the contending parties. The less it is satisfied with half-way concessions and compromises, and the more thorough it is in its efforts to remove forever the ground of controversy, the more permanent will be its success. This object is attained by a fundamental distinction between the different elements which are usually combined in such legends, namely, between the theoretical speculations which serve to satisfy a naive desire for knowledge, and the religious motives which find expression in this symbolical form. Whether the world was made in six days, as the Bible holds, or whether the process lasted for countless ages, and still continues; whether the sun revolves about the earth, as Biblical writers along with the rest of antiquity believed; whether primitive man sprang from the dust of the earth, or from trees or stars (in accordance with some myths), or whether he sprang from lower forms of